Madison's Metronome

Madison's Metronome

The Constitution, Majority Rule, and the Tempo of American Politics

Greg Weiner

In the wake of national crises and sharp shifts in the electorate, new members of Congress march off to Washington full of intense idealism and the desire for instant change—but often lacking in any sense of proportion or patience. This drive for instant political gratification concerned one of the key Founders, James Madison, who accepted the inevitability of majority rule but worried that an inflamed majority might not rule reasonably.

Greg Weiner challenges longstanding suppositions that Madison harbored misgivings about majority rule, arguing instead that he viewed constitutional institutions as delaying mechanisms to postpone decisions until after public passions had cooled and reason took hold. In effect, Madison believed that one of the Constitution's primary functions is to act as a metronome, regulating the tempo of American politics.

“[An] intriguing book. . . . Weiner provides an important corrective to a picture of Madison as antimajoritarian.”

—Journal of American History

“Weiner directly confronts the Madison problem by presenting a new version of the Madison we already know and thereby challenging what we think we know of Madisonian constitutionalism.”

—Political Science Quarterly

“Greg Weiner’s meticulous and felicitously-written scholarship illuminates a great constant in Madisons long career—an interest in institutional architecture to increase the likelihood that majority rule, which is inevitable, will be reasonable.”

—George F. Will

“A fresh and exciting work that convincingly demonstrates an underlying consistency in Madison’s republicanism that both complements and challenges familiar interpretations.”

—Drew McCoy, author of The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy

“Conceptually shrewd and eloquent, Weiner’s nuanced reading of Madison will last because it is the one most faithful to Madison’s writings and because it best captures the spirit of the man.”

—Alan Gibson, author of Interpreting the Founding and Understanding the Founding

“An illuminating work that merits the attention of historians as well as theorists.”

—Todd Estes, author of The John Jay Treaty Debate, Public Opinion, and the Evolution of Early American Political Culture

“In Madison’s Metronome Greg Weiner demonstrates Madison’s enduring commitment to majority rule—majority decision improved in quality by slowing it down, not by blocking it or substituting some form of elite control. Madison’s Metronome is a timely reply to those who insist our political system is ‘broken’ because fundamental changes can’t be accomplished quickly.”

—James H. Read, author of Majority Rule versus Consensus: The Political Thought of John C. Calhoun

Weiner calls this implicit doctrine "temporal republicanism" to emphasize both its compatibility with and its contrast to other interpretations of the Founders' thought. Like civic republicanism, the "temporal" variety embodies a set of values—public-spiritedness, respect for the rights of others-broader than the technical device of majority rule. Exploring this fundamental idea of time-seasoned majority rule across the entire range of Madison's long career, Weiner shows that it did not substantially change over the course of his life. He presents Madison's understanding of internal constitutional checks and his famous "extended republic" argument as different and complementary mechanisms for improving majority rule by slowing it down, not blocking it. And he reveals that the changes we see in Madison's views of majority rule arise largely from his evolving beliefs about who, exactly, was behaving impulsively—whether abusive majorities in the 1780s, the Adams regime in the 1790s, the nullifiers in the 1820s. Yet there is no evidence that Madison's underlying beliefs about either majority rule or the distorting and transient nature of passions ever swayed.

If patience was a fact of life in Madison's day—a time when communication and travel were slow—it surely is much harder to cultivate in the age of the Internet, 24-hour news, and politics based on instant gratification. While many of today's politicians seem to wed supreme impatience with an avowed devotion to original constitutional principles, Madison's Metronome suggests that one of our nation's great luminaries would likely view that marriage with caution.

About the Author

Greg Weiner has worked in the United States Senate as an aide to three senators and is now assistant professor of political science at Assumption College.